First Edition: June 30, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Essential Worker Shoulders $1,840 Pandemic Debt Due To COVID Cost Loophole 
Carmen Quintero works an early shift as a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse that ships N95 masks to a nation under siege from the coronavirus. On March 23, she had developed a severe cough, and her voice, usually quick and enthusiastic, was barely a whisper. A human resources staff member told Quintero she needed to go home. (Varney, 6/30)

Kaiser Health News: ‘More Than Physical Health’: Gym Helps 91-Year-Old Battle Isolation
Most mornings, like clockwork, you could find Art Ballard pumping iron. At least five days a week, he drove to Foothill Gym, where he beat on the punching bag, rode a stationary bike and worked his abs. After he joined the gym five years ago, he dropped 20 pounds, improved his balance and made friends. (de Marco, 6/30)

Kaiser Health News: Workers Filed More Than 4,100 Complaints About Protective Gear. Some Still Died. 
COVID-19 cases were climbing at Michigan’s McLaren Flint hospital. So Roger Liddell, 64, who procured supplies for the hospital, asked for an N95 respirator for his own protection, since his work brought him into the same room as COVID-positive patients. But the hospital denied his request, said Kelly Indish, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 875. (Jewett, Luthra and Bailey, 6/30)

Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline | Kaiser Health News
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical personnel account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides.“Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 729 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic. (6/30)

Kaiser Health News: Hospital Executive Charged In $1.4B Rural Hospital Billing Scheme
A Miami entrepreneur who led a rural hospital empire was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday in what federal prosecutors called a $1.4 billion fraudulent lab-billing scheme. In the indictment, prosecutors said Jorge A. Perez, 60, and nine others exploited federal regulations that allow some rural hospitals to charge substantially higher rates for laboratory testing than other providers. (Weber and Feder Ostrov, 6/30)

Kaiser Health News: Supreme Court, Rejecting Restrictive La. Law, Refuses To Roll Back Abortion Rights 
The decision in June Medical Services v. Russo effectively upholds a case from just four years ago. In 2016, in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a 5-3 majority struck down portions of a controversial Texas law, including not only the admitting privileges requirement but also a requirement for abortion clinics to meet the same standards as surgical centers that perform more advanced procedures. (Rovner, 6/29)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: High Court’s Surprising Abortion Decision 
The Supreme Court surprised both sides in the polarized abortion battle Monday by ruling, 5-4, that a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform the procedure to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital is an unconstitutional infringement of a woman’s right to an abortion. As expected, the court’s four liberals in the case, June Medical Services v. Russo, said that the law did not provide any protections for women and merely made it harder for them to obtain an abortion and that it was nearly identical to a Texas law struck down in 2016. (6/29)

The New York Times: States Pause Plans To Reopen As Cases Soar
With new cases surging in many parts of the country, at least a dozen states and cities are pulling back on reopening plans, with measures that effectively declare: Not so fast. (6/29)

CNN: Many States Hit Pause On Reopening But Experts Say The Spread Of Coronavirus Is Now Hard To Control
At least 16 states have halted their reopening plans in response to a surge in new infections, but some health officials say the spread of coronavirus will be difficult to control. "What we hope is we can take it seriously and slow the transmission in these places," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But what I think is very discouraging is we're clearly not at a point where there's so little virus being spread that it's going to be easy to snuff out." (Maxouris, 6/30)

AP: States Reverse Openings, Require Masks Amid Virus Resurgence
Among those implementing the face-covering orders is the city of Jacksonville, Florida, where mask-averse President Donald Trump plans to accept the Republican nomination in August. Trump has refused to wear a mask during visits to states and businesses that require them. (Lush and Schmall, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Regional Coronavirus Surges Force Changes In Plans Elsewhere In The U.S.
More than 41,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded nationwide Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That was an increase from Sunday, but lower than Friday’s record of 45,255. World-wide, confirmed Covid-19 infections exceeded 10.3 million, with more than 505,000 deaths. The U.S. accounts for about a quarter of each figure. (Hall, 6/30)

The New York Times: NY, NJ May Delay Reopening Phases As Covid Spikes Across Country 
The governors of New York and New Jersey said on Monday that they were so alarmed by a surge in coronavirus cases in the South and West that they were reconsidering plans to allow indoor dining in the two states in the coming days. Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said that plans to allow indoor dining to resume on Thursday would be postponed “indefinitely.” (Zaveri, 6/29)

The Hill: Governors Rethink Opening Bars, Restaurants Amid Spike In COVID-19 Cases 
State and local officials are facing pressure to keep bars and indoor dining closed as the U.S. reckons with another upswing in COVID-19 infections weeks after lockdown measures were lifted. Indoor venues where people eat, drink and socialize have become sources of COVID-19 spread in several states where cases are rising, forcing leaders to reevaluate their decisions to allow bars and indoor restaurants to reopen during a pandemic. Meanwhile, governors who have not yet allowed those facilities to reopen said they will reconsider their plans to do so. (Hellmann, 6/29)

Reuters: California, Texas See Record COVID-19 Surges, Arizona Clamps Down 
California and Texas both marked record spikes in new COVID-19 infections on Monday, a Reuters tally showed, as Los Angeles reported an “alarming” one-day surge in America’s second-largest city that put it over 100,000 cases. Los Angeles has become a new epicenter in the pandemic as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge there despite California Governor Gavin Newsom’s strict orders requiring bars to close and residents to wear masks in nearly all public spaces. (Whitcomb and Caspani, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Reopening Grinds To A Halt As Sunbelt States Witness Surge In Coronavirus Hospitalizations
As coronavirus cases continue to surge across the Sun Belt, the optimism surrounding ambitious reopening plans is swiftly dissipating. Arizona delayed plans to reopen public schools and ordered bars, gyms, movie theaters and water parks to close on Monday, as the state marked yet another day with a record number of hospitalizations. In Los Angeles County, which is at risk of running out of hospital beds in the next two to three weeks, residents are being urged to “hunker down” in their homes and avoid all unnecessary trips. (Noori Farzan and Noack, 6/30)

AP: In About-Face, Arizona Shuts Bars, Pools Again To Curb Virus
Arizona’s governor ordered bars, nightclubs and water parks to close again for at least a month starting Monday night — a dramatic about-face as coronavirus cases surge in the Sunbelt. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey also ordered public schools to delay the start of the classes at least until Aug. 17. Many districts planned to start the school year in late July or early August. His orders can be extended. (Billeaud, 6/30)

The New York Times: ‘Our Luck May Have Run Out’: California’s Case Count Explodes
Only a few weeks ago, thousands of Southern Californians were flocking to beaches, Disneyland was announcing it would soon reopen and Whoopi Goldberg was lauding Gov. Gavin Newsom on “The View” for the state’s progress in combating the coronavirus. The worst, many in California thought, was behind them. In fact, an alarming surge in cases up and down the state was only just beginning. (Hubler and Fuller, 6/29)

AP: Analysis: Virus Surge Forces Arizona Gov's Hand On Masks
After telling Arizonans that many public places were again being closed amid a surge of coronavirus cases, Gov. Doug Ducey ended a somewhat contentious news conference by imploring people to wear face masks. “Arm yourself with a mask,” he said Monday after issuing an executive order to shut down bars, night clubs and water parks while pushing back the start of school in the fall. “It’s your best defense against this virus.” (Billeaud and Prengaman, 6/30)

The Hill: Governor Orders Kansas Residents To Wear Masks In Public 
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) said Monday she is ordering residents to wear masks in public in an effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. The move will not reimpose restrictions on which state businesses are open, but rather will mandate that all Kansans wear masks when in public both indoors and outdoors when a six-foot distance cannot be maintained. (Klar, 6/29)

The Hill: Governors Urge Pence To Promote Mask-Wearing 
Two governors urged Vice President Pence last week to adopt stronger messaging to encourage Americans to wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) and at least one other governor asked Pence on Friday to promote mask-wearing as several states see new outbreaks of the virus, according to multiple sources on a call between the vice president and governors. Two sources said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) also brought up messaging on masks. (Samuels, 6/29)

The Hill: McConnell Makes Strong Call For Masks, Saying There Should Be No Stigma
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that wearing a mask cannot be stigmatized, calling wearing one in public part of the country's new routine amid the coronavirus pandemic. McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, said until there was a vaccine Americans needed to find a "middle ground" between widespread lockdowns and life pre-coronavirus. (Carney, 6/29)

Politico: McConnell Urges Americans To Continue To Wear Masks 
McConnell added that it’s the responsibility of individuals, small businesses, employers and “all levels of government” to take the necessary public health precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. He noted health care professionals in Kentucky recognize that the extra precautions Americans are taking have helped prevent hospitals from being overrun. (Levine, 6/29)

The Washington Post: McConnell Says There Should Be ‘No Stigma’ To Wearing Face Masks During Coronavirus Pandemic 
The top Senate Republican said Monday that there should be “no stigma” to wearing face masks to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus as President Trump continues to refuse to wear one in public. The remarks by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came one day after Vice President Pence appeared at an event in Texas, one of the new coronavirus epicenters, where he urged Americans to don masks and wore one himself while not speaking. (Sonmez, 6/29)

Politico: ‘Recipe For Disaster’: Fauci Urges Americans To Buckle Down On Coronavirus Preventative Measures 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, admonished Americans who have abandoned practicing personal mitigation measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus — asserting that such an “all or none” approach has contributed to a surge of new Covid-19 cases across the country. “What has happened, I guess understandably, but nonetheless regrettably, [is] that people took the attitude in some places of either all or none. Either you’re locked down, or you just let it fly and you just ignore many of the guidelines of” social distancing, mask-wearing, abstaining from shaking hands and avoiding large crowds, Fauci told CNN in an interview that aired Monday. (Forgey, 6/29)

NPR: Former NIH Director Has Harsh Words For Trump Administration's Pandemic Response 
Dr. Elias Zerhouni knows the dangers of infectious disease outbreaks. He was director of the National Institutes of Health in 2005 when bird flu appeared poised to become more infectious to humans. Fortunately, that pandemic never materialized, but he says it served as a warning of what was to come. Zerhouni has been a member of the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and head of global research and development for the pharmaceutical company Sanofi. (Palca, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Says The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Well Under Control Despite Surges In The South And West 
The Trump administration said Monday that it has the coronavirus epidemic under control in the United States, but a resurgent outbreak in Sun Belt states continued to worsen — and Jacksonville, Fla., where President Trump plans to pack a convention hall to accept the Republican nomination for reelection, made mask-wearing mandatory. The World Health Organization warned that the outbreak is far from over and a grim milestone passed Sunday, with the confirmed worldwide death count from the novel coronavirus surpassing 500,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Over the weekend, the number of coronavirus cases reported worldwide soared past 10 million. (Gearan, Shammas and Beachum, 6/29)

The New York Times: Louisiana Abortion Law Struck Down By Supreme Court 
But in the end, Chief Justice Roberts’s commitment to precedent sank the Louisiana law. “I joined the dissent in Whole Woman’s Health,” he wrote on Monday, “and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided. The question today, however, is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case.” (Liptak, 6/29)

Politico: Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Law 
Justice Stephen Breyer, in an opinion joined by rest of the court's liberal wing, wrote that the Louisiana law would make it "impossible for many women to obtain a safe, legal abortion in the State and [impose] substantial obstacles on those who could." Roberts, in a separate concurring opinion, disagreed with the liberal justices' reasoning but said he was bound by the precedent the court set just four years ago when it rejected a similar law in Texas. (Miranda Ollstein, 6/29)

The Hill: Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Restrictions 
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Louisiana abortion law, handing a win to abortion rights advocates who feared the conservative court would break with past rulings to rein in protections that emerged from the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. The justices voted 5-4 to invalidate Louisiana’s admitting-privilege law in the first major abortion ruling of the Trump era, which came after the court struck down a nearly identical Texas restriction four years ago. (Kruzel, 6/29)

The New York Times: The Supreme Court Stopped Anti-Abortion Momentum. For Now.
For anti-abortion activists, Monday’s Supreme Court ruling against a Louisiana law delivered a stinging and surprising setback. But perhaps not for long. The anti-abortion movement has a long pipeline of new cases that, if taken up by the Supreme Court, could present a more direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established federal protection for abortion. As of June, there were at least 16 abortion cases before United States appeals courts, the last step before the Supreme Court, according to lawyers at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. (Tavernise and Dias, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Louisiana Abortion Law Struck Down By Supreme Court 
Four other conservatives dissented, including Justice Kennedy’s successor, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “In my view, additional fact-finding is necessary to properly evaluate Louisiana’s law,” he wrote in a terse dissent that took up only two of the 133 pages six different justices filed in various plurality, concurring and dissenting opinions. (Bravin, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Strikes Down Restrictive Louisiana Abortion Law That Would Have Closed Clinics
Each of the court’s four most consistent conservatives wrote separately to describe their disagreement. (Barnes, 6/29)

The Washington Post: With Abortion Ruling, Roberts Reasserts His Role And Supreme Court’s Independence 
Every Supreme Court decision seems to confirm Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s pivotal role at the center of the court, and Monday’s ruling on abortion showed that restrictions on a woman’s right to the procedure for now will go only as far as the chief justice allows. In a remarkable stretch of decisions over the past two weeks, Roberts has dismayed conservatives and the Trump administration by finding that federal anti-discrimination law protects gay, bisexual and transgender workers and stopping the president from ending the federal program that protects undocumented immigrants brought here as children. (Barnes, 6/29)

AP: Iowa Governor Signs Abortion Law Amid Court Challenge
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law a bill that requires women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion, trying again to institute a restriction similar to one struck down two years ago by the Iowa Supreme Court. Reynolds signed the measure into law just after lawyers representing Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the state wrapped up arguments before a state court judge. The court must now decide whether to halt immediately enforcement of the new law, which is set to take effect Wednesday. (Pitt, 6/30)

The New York Times: Abortion Rises As A Pivotal Issue For At-Risk Senate Republicans 
It did not take Sara Gideon long to leverage Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion in her race against Senator Susan Collins. When Ms. Collins, a Maine Republican, cast a decisive vote to confirm Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, she did so on the premise that he would uphold precedent to preserve abortion rights. But on Monday, Justice Kavanaugh dissented from a decision that did that, arguing that the court should have ruled differently than it did in a nearly identical case four years ago. (Astor and Stevens, 6/29)

Stat: Gilead Announces Long-Awaited Price For Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir 
Since remdesivir became the first medicine shown to have an impact on Covid-19, doctors, politicians, and Wall Street investors have engaged in a tense guessing game: What would its maker, Gilead Sciences, charge for the drug? Now there is an answer. (Herper, 6/29)

The New York Times: Remdesivir, The First Coronavirus Drug, Gets A Price Tag 
Remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the coronavirus, will be distributed under an unusual agreement with the federal government that establishes nonnegotiable prices and prioritizes American patients, health officials announced on Monday. Remdesivir will be sold for $520 per vial, or $3,120 per treatment course, to hospitals for treatment of patients with private insurance, according to the Department of Health and Human Services and Gilead Sciences, the drug’s manufacturer. (Kolata, 6/29)

NPR: COVID-19 Drug Remdesivir Priced At More Than $3,100 Per Patient 
The drugmaker behind the experimental COVID-19 treatment remdesivir has announced how much it will charge for the drug, after months of speculation as the company tried to figure out how to balance profit and public health needs in the middle of a pandemic. In the United States, Gilead Sciences will charge $520 per vial for patients with private insurance, with some government programs getting a lower price. With a double-dose the first day, that comes out to $3,120 for the five-day treatment course. For governments in developed countries outside the U.S., it will cost $390 per vial, or $2,340 for the five-day course. (Lupkin, 6/29)

Stat: Gilead's Resmdesivir Pricing Raises Questions About Long-Term Prospects
After weeks of anticipation, Gilead Sciences (GILD) finally disclosed the pricing for its remdesivir experimental Covid-19 treatment. But while the number is less than what both investors and a cost-effectiveness watchdog had been expecting, the drug holds the potential to generate plenty of sales. But whether it can generate huge profits is open to debate. (Silverman, 6/29)

Stat: How Gilead’s Remdesivir Price Could Come Back To Haunt The Drug Industry
Gilead Sciences, in a self-described effort to do “the right and responsible thing,” may have just set a precedent its industry peers will come to resent. In picking a price for the Covid-19 drug remdesivir that is, in the words of CEO Daniel O’Day, “well below” its actual value, Gilead said it was prioritizing “broad and equitable access” over company profits. (Garde, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir To Cost $3,120 For Typical Patient 
Under the company’s plans, Gilead will charge a higher price for most patients in the U.S., and a lower price for the rest of the developed world where governments directly negotiate drug prices. The lower price will be extended to some U.S. government agencies, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, but not programs such as Medicare and Medicaid that don’t directly purchase medicines, a Gilead spokesman said. (Walker, 6/29)

The Hill: House Fires Back At Trump By Passing ObamaCare Expansion 
Democrats timed the vote to contrast with the Trump administration’s legal brief filed with the Supreme Court last week calling for the ACA to be struck down, a move Democrats said would be even more harmful during the coronavirus pandemic. (Sullivan, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Democratic-Controlled House Passes Expansion Of Affordable Care Act 
The House Monday passed the first significant expansion of the Affordable Care Act since its birth a decade ago, providing Democrats a high-wattage platform to castigate President Trump for his efforts to overturn the landmark law during a pandemic and an election year. The 234-179 vote, almost entirely along party lines, was a hollow exercise in terms of any chance the bill would become law and reshape federal health policy. Moments after the debate began, the White House announced the president would veto the legislation if it reached his desk, though a wall of Senate Republican opposition to the measure makes that a moot point. (Goldstein, 6/29)

AP: Oklahoma Voters To Decide Whether To Expand Medicaid
Oklahoma is one of 14 states, along with neighboring Texas and Kansas, that have not expanded Medicaid under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and his predecessor, Mary Fallin, both have opposed expansion, citing uncertainty about future costs for the state. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority has projected that about 215,000 residents would qualify for a Medicaid expansion, for a total annual cost of about $1.3 billion. The estimated state share would be about $164 million. But those numbers could be considerably higher given the number of Oklahomans who have lost their jobs and work-related health insurance because of the economic shutdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.(6/30)

Politico: Voters In Deep-Red Oklahoma Weigh Medicaid Expansion As Virus Cases Climb 
Voters in deep-red Oklahoma this week could order Medicaid expansion for at least 200,000 poor adults, defying state and Trump administration officials fighting to limit the Obamacare program. If voters approve a ballot measure on Tuesday, Oklahoma would become the first state to broadly expand government-backed health insurance to many of its poorest residents since the beginning of a pandemic that has stripped many people of coverage. At the same time, that could scuttle the Trump administration’s efforts to make Oklahoma a test case for its plan to transform the entitlement program into a block grant. (Roubein and Goldberg, 6/29)

CIDRAP: Worrisome Details Noted In Kids With COVID Inflammatory Syndrome 
Today the New England Journal of Medicine published two studies spotlighting the serious manifestations of COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), the first involving 186 kids in 26 states and the second involving 99 patients in New York. On May 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a national health advisory on COVID-19 patients with features of MIS-C similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare pediatric inflammatory illness that can cause coronary-artery aneurysms and toxic shock syndrome. (Beusekom, 6/29)

AP: Serious Coronavirus-Linked Condition Hit 285 US Children
At least 285 U.S. children have developed a serious inflammatory condition linked to the coronavirus and while most recovered, the potential for long-term or permanent damage is unknown, two new studies suggest. The papers, published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine, provide the fullest report yet on the condition. (Tanner, 6/30)

Stat: Studies Find Nearly 300 Kids With Inflammatory Condition Tied To Covid-19
Two U.S. research groups have reported finding nearly 300 cases of an alarming apparent side effect of Covid-19 in children, a condition called multisystem inflammation syndrome, or MIS-C. While researchers have previously reported on the condition, the papers mark the first attempt to measure how frequently the side effect occurs and how it affects children who develop it. (Branswell, 6/29)

The Washington Post: This Coronavirus Mutation Has Taken Over The World. Scientists Are Trying To Understand Why.
When the first coronavirus cases in Chicago appeared in January, they bore the same genetic signatures as a germ that emerged in China weeks before. But as Egon Ozer, an infectious-disease specialist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, examined the genetic structure of virus samples from local patients, he noticed something different. (Kaplan and Achenbach, 6/29)

NPR: Is Your State Doing Enough Coronavirus Testing To Suppress Its Outbreak?
The coronavirus keeps spreading around the United States. New hot spots are emerging and heating up by the day. The death toll keeps mounting. So how can the U.S. beat back the relentless onslaught of this deadly virus? Public health experts agree one powerful weapon is something that's gotten a lot of attention, but apparently still needs a lot more: Testing. (Stein, 6/30)

The New York Times: Does Your Local Doctor Have A Coronavirus Test For You? 
Back in March, after President Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency, doctors felt ill-equipped to diagnose their patients or counsel them on treatment and prevention. Three months later, testing numbers are up. But primary care physicians — the doctors that many turn to first when their health declines — are not always equipped to check their patients for the pathogen. And community testing sites have not been evenly distributed, snubbing some populations most vulnerable to the ill effects of the virus. Many Americans hoping to get tested are not even sure where to start looking. (Wu, 6/29)

NPR: She Had COVID-19 Symptoms And Wanted To Get Tested. Now She Owes $1,840 
Carmen Quintero works an early shift as a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse that ships N95 masks to a nation under siege from the coronavirus. On March 23, she had developed a severe cough, and her voice, usually quick and enthusiastic, was barely a whisper. A human resources staff member told Quintero she needed to go home. "They told me I couldn't come back until I was tested," said Quintero, who was also told that she would need to document that she didn't have the virus. (Varney, 6/30)

The New York Times: Two Friends In Texas Were Tested For Coronavirus. One Bill Was $199. The Other? $6,408. 
Before a camping and kayaking trip along the Texas Coast, Pam LeBlanc and Jimmy Harvey decided to get coronavirus tests. They wanted a bit more peace of mind before spending 13 days in close quarters along with three friends. The two got drive-through tests at Austin Emergency Center in Austin. (Kliff, 6/29)

Reuters: The Game Changer That Wasn't
As Britain’s COVID-19 infections soared in the spring, the government reached for what it hoped could be a game changer – a smartphone app that could automate some of the work of human contact tracers. The origin of the NHS COVID-19 App goes back to a meeting on March 7 when three Oxford scientists met experts at NHSX, the technical arm of the UK’s health service. The scientists presented an analysis that concluded manual contact tracing alone couldn’t control the epidemic. (Stecklow, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Millions Track The Pandemic On Johns Hopkins’s Dashboard. Those Who Built It Say Some Miss The Real Story
But even as data has jumped to the forefront of international discussions about the virus, the Johns Hopkins team wrestles with doubts about whether the numbers can truly capture the scope of the pandemic, and whether the public and policymakers are failing to absorb the big picture. They know what they are producing is not a high-resolution snapshot of the pandemic but a constantly shifting Etch a Sketch of the trail of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (Swenson, 6/29)

The Hill: Companies Have Raised Prices On 245 Drugs During Pandemic, Advocacy Group Says 
Pharmaceutical companies have raised prices on 245 drugs since the first U.S. coronavirus case was reported on Jan. 20, according to a report released Sunday by an advocacy group. Sixty-one of the drugs that saw price increases are being used to treat COVID-19, and 30 are in clinical trials, the group Patients for Affordable Drugs said in its report. The price hikes are on par with increases the previous two years. (Bikales, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Inside 3 Reopened Restaurants: Handwashing Stations, Temperature Checks, QR Codes 
The easiest job for a food critic? Assembling table mates. Even when I tell people I’m not responsible for how the night might turn out, the siren call of a meal paid by someone else is hard to say no to. Only twice in two decades have I had a problem getting people to help me eat my way through a menu. Before Anthony S. Fauci became a household name, it was when I first reviewed the exclusive Sushi Nakazawa, a branch of a four-star draw in New York that is linked to the Trump International hotel. (Sietsema, 6/29)

The New York Times: These Are The Heartbreaking Belongings That Covid Victims Left Behind 
Across New York, workers in patient services at hospitals have had to figure out what to do with the thousands of cellphones, chargers, walkers, canes, hearing aids, dentures, glasses, clothing, shoes, wallets, Bibles, jewelry, among other items, that have been left behind by patients who have died after contracting Covid-19. (Salcedo, 6/29)

AP: How Risky Is Flying During The Coronavirus Pandemic?
Flying can increase your risk of exposure to infection, but airlines are taking some precautions and you can too. Air travel means spending time in security lines and airport terminals, which puts you into close contact with other people. As travel slowly recovers, planes are becoming more crowded, which means you will likely sit close to other people, often for hours, which raises your risk. (6/30)

The Washington Post: All Masked Up And Ready To Gamble As Maryland’s Casinos Reopen
So, are you feeling lucky? That’s what gamblers around the D.C. region are asking themselves as they decide whether they are comfortable returning to Maryland’s casinos, the two largest of which reopened Monday after a 3½-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. For Mariam Hashimi, of Woodbridge, Va., the answer was a qualified yes. Hashimi said she called MGM National Harbor on Monday morning to check on safety precautions before deciding to visit. She arrived after her shift as an attendant on Amtrak’s Auto Train, wearing the same protective equipment she wears for work, including gloves, two face masks and a face shield. (Heim, 6/29)